Blue-and-white flask with dragons. Ming dynasty, Yongle period, AD 1403–24
Blue-and-white flask with dragons. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, Yongle period, AD 1403–24. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF C503 © Trustees of the British Museum
Height: 478 mm. Width: 350 mm. Depth: 225 mm. Weight: 7.2 kb. Large porcelain flask of bian hu form. Underglaze blue with large three-clawed dragon among scrolling lotus. Similar scrolling lotus on neck and squared spirals at the rim.
Both the Yongle (AD1403—24) and Xuande (AD1426—35) emperors sponsored important maritime trade and diplomatic missions to the Middle East. The form of this flask was not originally Chinese but was inspired by a Middle Eastern shape, possibly an enamelled glass vessel. During both the Yongle and Xuande emperors’ reigns, flasks in this large, heavy, bulbous form with variations to the decoration were made at the imperial kilns at Zhushan珠山 in Jingdezhen. The imperial household probably used such flasks as wine decanters but also traded them as evidenced by similar flasks in the Topkapi Saray in Turkey and the Ardabil Shrine in Iran.
Bibliographic reference: Pierson, Stacey, Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, London, Percival David Foundation, 2001
Medley, Margaret, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1976
Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004
Pierson, Stacey, Blue and White for China: Porcelain Treasures in the Percival David Collection, London, Percival David Foundation, 2004 (Front conver illustration)
Krahl, Regina; Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, London, BMP, 2009